Hey family!

The weather here is fine. Don't worry about that. Ever. Honestly, the weather is the last thing you need to worry about for me here. My allergies are insane though. That's the only bad thing.

Yes, I got my package. :) Thank you to all who contributed to it. :) I love it. :)

So I suppose you want to hear about Elder Nelson coming.

So, we drove down to Tulsa. We had the entire mission there. The chapel was jampacked, including the stage.

Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was present. He was accompanied by Elder Richard J. Maynes and Elder Garrett W. Gong of the First Quorum of the Seventy. There were also 2 Area Seventies present(6th Quorum of Seventy, we have 8 apparently, who knew?), but I don't remember their names. I couldn't even pronounce one of them.

The first thing we did is all go up one at a time and shake their hands(we didn't shake the Area Seventies hands, they were coordinating the whole thing and acting as
Reverence Police). That was really cool. Everyone(myself included) felt like Elder Nelson was gazing into their soul, looking for something(sin, I assume). So that was interesting.

Elder Gong spoke first. His was mostly a group discussion about what we would do in certain situations of missionary work.

Elder Maynes spoke next. He spoke about the two greatest gifts that God has given us in this life. First, the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ. Second, the Gift of the Holy Ghost. He thought it was interesting that the two greatest gifts in this life were two of the members of the Godhead. Which gifts are designed to lead ultimately, to Eternal Life(with God the Father), which gift is the greatest of all the gifts of God.

Then Elder Nelson spoke. He told reminisced and told some funny stories.

He spoke about the difference between Seventies and Apostles. In D&C 107, an Apostle is described as a "special witness' of Christ. A Seventy is described as an "especial witness" of Christ. He asked what we thought the difference between the two was. We all stared blankly. Finally one Elder spoke up and gave a theory. Then Elder Nelson complimented him on his thought, but said that, to the Brethren, there is no difference. You can same some ink by dropping the "e" he said.

He then opened it up for a few minutes to questions. And you know me, I came prepared. I was not going to hesitate to ask an Apostle a question, if given the opportunity. I had a list. :) I only asked one though. I asked him to bear his testimony that he was called by God and not by Man. I have never heard an Apostle really do that before, so that's what I wanted to hear. His response was quick, "No man would do that." It was very funny. But not exactly the answer I was looking for. Another Elder asked about what Tea we are and are not allowed to drink, as that is a common question here. Elder Nelson stated that he, personally, avoids the appearance of evil. He also spoke of China. He said that they drink Hot Tea all day and all night in China. All the time. They are constantly burning, re-burning, and burning again their Esophagus. Cancer of the Esophagus is one of the most prevalent medical problems in China, apparently. While here in America, it's almost unheard of. Interesting.

He then spoke about repentance. He spoke about how his job is to call us to repentance, but he said, "I don't see a sinner among you." So he talked about what repentance truly is. He knows all the Greek and Latin roots of words, and so he broke it down. The root of Repentance is Greek. It is meta-something(I don't remember, but I did write it down). Meta means change. Then the rest of the word is related to 4 other Greek roots. I don't remember them, but I remember what they mean: 1) Knowledge 2) Mind 3) Air or Spirit 4) Breathe. So, when we truly, truly repent, it changes us completely. It changes what we know, it changes how we think, it changes our perspective, it changes our spirit, and it even changes the way we breathe. Totally fascinating. So, truly, it should be very easy to tell if someone has truly repented. They will have a complete and total change of heart(and of body, I might add). I loved hearing about that.

He also spoke about this one section in Doctrine & Covenants, given through Joseph Smith to a missionary. It promises that the man's family would be taken care of and ultimately receive salvation because of his efforts. Elder Nelson told us that this promise was to us as well. I already knew that though, because of Pres. Meservy.

He talked about a few other things(all of which I wrote down, but can't remember at the moment). Then he left us with his testimony and an Apostolic Blessing. I don't remember all that the blessing contained, but I remember it talked about us having health, as well as being blessed to return to our families in safety.

It was an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime experience. I loved it.

So anyways, that was easily the highlight of my week.:)

I will talk to you all next week! Have a good one! Tell Cambry Happy Birthday for me! And go to the temple, too. :)

Love,
Elder Bracken